💨 Train Songz sells out (a show)

We hosted our first real, ticketed concert with The Asheville Mountain Boys at the Grey Eagle in Asheville last Thursday, the free day between Billy's four-day run of shows. We'd been dreaming up this event since just about this time last year. We sold 400 tickets, which was a sellout. We're sorry to the handful of folks we had to turn away at the door!

• Note: If you missed the show, which was about two hours and thirty minutes of unplugged bluegrass, we did hire a sound engineer to record it and mix it for hosting online. We'll share it as soon as the band has it up on YouTube. I can't wait for y'all to hear what a fantastic show the Mountain Boys put on.

This was a launch show for The Asheville Mountain Boys' self-titled debut record. Support them by grabbing one on Bandcamp. Encourage you to go direct and grab a copy on Bandcamp, rather than just relying on streaming, if you have the means. I have been listening to the vinyl I bought at the show all weekend, and it's fantastic.

If you've really been paying attention to Train Songz Live! lore, you'll note that this was technically our third show. We did one with Christian Apuzzo and the Brooklyn Bluegrass Collective in New York last November, but that was a free show at a bar. We paid the band, but didn't charge for tickets. Then we did another show with Valley Flower in Texas in December, but the band and the venue totally handled ticket sales and payment. We paid $500 towards marketing for the event, which I'm pretty sure was the cost of getting the gig poster made for promotion.

This show was different, as Train Songz totally took on the risk of hosting the show. We paid the band and the sound person a flat cash rate, and then also split the cost of tickets with the venue and the band. Here's how that breaks down:

• The show brought in $8,340 total
  • $7,840 from 392 tickets at $20 each
  • $500 from 10 vendors who each paid $50 for a table
• The great state of North Carolina took about $513 in amusement tax
• The Grey Eagle kept roughly $2,198 for their cut and expenses
• The Asheville Mountain Boys earned $4,744
  • $2,000 flat guarantee
  • 35% of gross ticket sales
• The sound engineer earned a flat rate of $800

All told, we spent $8,255 and came out about $85 ahead. We won't spend it all in one place!!

So no, we didn't make a ton of money on this one. We basically broke even. But making a ton of money on a show was never the point. We honestly thought we were going to lose money and write it off to marketing, but look at us! $85 in the black, baby. We'll get smarter about the business side with every show, but for a first real go at it, we're pretty proud of how this turned out.

Honestly, this was one of my favorite Train Songz moments so far. I've been working on and thinking about this project pretty much constantly since launching the meme page in July 2023. To put on an event that wouldn't have happened if we hadn't dreamed it up, and to meet so many of you face to face who pick up what we're putting down with print media and the way old tunes intersect with the present day, was very very cool. Towards the end of the show, when we were done vending and could soak up the tunes a bit, I took a moment to take in the moment and felt pretty damn proud. Real cool to share it with Promontory Paul and Brakeman, who were both in attendance as well. Shoutout Brakeman for leading the way on the idea to put a show on with the Mountain Boys, and shoutout Promontory Paul for hurting his body to make the travel work around his work schedule.

Thank you to everyone who came out to support and share an evening of music together. We loved meeting zine subscribers face to face and all the great conversation that came with it. One of you even brought a copy of your first edition for me to sign, which was pretty gnarly to see something I handmade and mailed on my dinner table two and a half years ago back in my hands.

This won't be the last of our live show endeavors, and if you'd like to work together don't be afraid to reach out. I know we'll be in Denver on October 3 with our friends Water Tower. One zine at a time, one show at a time...

Thanks again to the Asheville Mountain Boys and everyone who came out.

–The Conductor